Franciscan Missionaries to run hospitals in eastern New Orleans, St. Bernard

Faith-based hospital medical care, severely reduced in New Orleans for nearly 20 years, is about to grow again as two Catholic health ministries prepare to open new or refurbished hospitals and health clinics in St. Bernard Parish and eastern New Orleans. One ministry is the Baton Rouge-based Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System, which, although largely unknown around New Orleans, is the largest private hospital system in Louisiana.

View full sizeRusty Costanza, The Times-Picayune archiveEmergency medical technician Heather Scianneaux, left, and paramedic Janie Fuller look at architectural renderings of the St. Bernard Parish Hospital during a groundbreaking ceremony for the hospital in July 2010.

In addition, the Franciscan Missionaries will be joined in eastern New Orleans by another order of Catholic nuns, the Daughters of Charity — veterans of nearly 200 years of nursing in New Orleans.

The Daughters of Charity have reinvented their health ministry since selling Hotel Dieu Hospital in 1992; they now work with a much lower public profile, providing families and individuals basic medical care at three neighborhood sites in New Orleans and East Jefferson.

They plan to open a fourth family-medicine clinic in May in the professional building next to the former Methodist Hospital, abandoned since Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005.

In late 2013, the Daughters plan to move into a new building elsewhere on the property.

Twenty years ago, New Orleans was rich with faith-based hospitals — most of them Christian, seeking to make enough money to stay in business without earning profits to distribute to shareholders.

But the 1990s were unkind to stand-alone hospitals. The economics of health care demanded new efficiencies across the landscape. Consolidation became the answer.

Today, only Touro Infirmary, founded by Jewish philanthropist Judah Touro in the mid-19th century, provides local nonprofit hospital care from a platform of faith-based values.

View full sizeDavid Grunfeld, The Times-Picayune archiveThe Methodist Hospital site was photographed in January 2011.

In 1992, the Daughters of Charity sold their 133-year-old hospital, Hotel Dieu, to the state, when it became University Hospital. That institution now functions as Interim LSU Public Hospital.

In 1993, 69-year-old Baptist Hospital, originally affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, disappeared in a series of mergers and sales, most recently to Ochsner, which restored part of its historic name. The site now operates as Ochsner-Baptist Medical Center.

In 1995, Mercy Hospital, a 71-year ministry of the Daughters of Mercy, having temporarily merged with Baptist, disappeared with Baptist in a sale to Tenet Healthcare Corp.

‘Healing ministry’

Although not well known in New Orleans, the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System manages nearly 1,700 hospital beds across the state, compared to runner-up Ochsner, with about 1,250.

Its flagship is Our Lady of the Lake Hospital in Baton Rouge, which system president John Finan said is the largest in the state, with more than 700 licensed beds.

The Franciscans also own major hospitals in Monroe and Lafayette and smaller hospitals in Gonzales and Napoleonville, as well as housing and long-term residential care for seniors.

Their arrival in metro New Orleans as managers-for-hire is a new experience for the organization, Finan said.

The Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady traces its beginnings in Louisiana to six French nuns who emigrated here in 1911.

Today there are only 17 nuns remaining in the state. But seeing their numbers dwindling, the nuns years ago recruited laypeople to their ministry and instilled in those lay executives — Catholic and non-Catholic alike — the particular values that had animated them, Finan said.

“We are first of all about the healing ministry of Jesus, and we find ourselves in this commercial environment,” said Finan in his Baton Rouge office. “Our work is to care for those most in need, whether physical or otherwise — and do it in a way that’s commercially viable so we can continue this.”

Finan said the organization works hard to create an employee culture, especially its regard for patients, based on its own reading of the Gospel.

In hiring, “we place a strong emphasis on who we are and why we’re here. We continuously reinforce our mission and our values with our team members,” Finan said.

That said, the Franciscan health system is merely a contractor in two secular hospitals.

The public hospital service districts will be the actual employers and will hire according to norms governed by state law. Nurses, medical technicians and others will be employed by the district, not the Franciscan Missionaries.

Restrictions on services

But even as contractors, Finan said, the Franciscan Missionaries remains bound to ethical guidelines promulgated by U.S. Catholic bishops that set boundaries for some kinds of services.

In some parts of the country, tensions have developed where Catholic ministries operate public hospitals. In many cases, communities demand reproductive services such as surgical sterilization that Catholic operators cannot provide because they violate Catholic teaching.

In some places, including Austin, Texas, Catholic contractors and the community created a “hospital within the hospital” where such procedures are performed by separate contractors behind organizational and accounting firewalls.

But Finan and Dr. Karen DeSalvo, New Orleans’ health commissioner, said no special arrangement will be required here.

The reason: The New Orleans hospital — it still does not have a working name — will not serve enough people to offer obstetric and gynecological services, where those procedures would take place.

Although the New Orleans hospital will serve a community of about 77,000, DeSalvo said the economics of health care are such that that population will not provide enough births to sustain the investment in equipment and skilled doctors and nurses to warrant obstetrical service.

“Looking at the numbers, it doesn’t make sense to start with OB,” DeSalvo said. “But if the population continues to grow, we can add it later if it makes sense.”

That means Touro will remain the sole provider of deliveries in New Orleans, DeSalvo said.

In Baton Rouge, Finan said the five-year operating contract with both hospitals is something of a novelty for the Franciscan Missionaries — a response to local invitations, not its own strategic initiative.

Finan said time will tell whether the relationship will be renewed.

DeSalvo, the health commissioner, agreed. “We all understand five years is a long time,” she said. “We’re comfortable with that. If the quality is there, I’m sure it’ll be a long-term relationship.”